Saturday, December 5, 2009

Multimedia Fun Day Part Two

The Kiss of Life book tour took me to the World Fantasy Convention in beautiful San Jose this past Halloween weekend. Among some of the highlights: meeting new friends for breakfast (Hi Lita and George!), sneaking off to go tour the Winchester Mystery House with my friend and sometimes mentor F. Paul Wilson, and buying too many books in the dealer room.

But I also was given the opportunity to participate in some of the programming, including two panels. The first of these panels was recorded and the audio is up at what has long been one of my favorite websites,which is Rick Kleffel's The Agony Column, which to my mind is just about the best website covering speculative fiction out there, and has a huge archive of interviews and podcasts with many of my favorite authors in the field.

At WFC, I had the privilege of being on the "Invention vs. Tradition" panel alongside John Kessel, Richard Lupoff, Beth Meacham and Delia Sherman.

Here's a link to an article with a downloadable audio file of the entire panel discussion. You can find it at the bottom of the 11-20-09 article, just before the article on S.G. Browne's Breathers. I met S.G. (Scott) at the convention, and he is truly a rock star and a great guy.

Among the brilliant things that my illustrious co-panelists' say, you will get to hear me hold forth on:

* why I would like to buy Stephenie Meyer lunch

* the profound impact the remake of 13 Ghosts has had on my life and work

* what I think of as my favorite zombie novels

* the thrilling origin story of how I became a YA author

* just what parents' think about me trying to corrupt their impressionable children

13 comments:

I've always been one of those people in school who are always reading, and my friends or even just an aquaintance will ask me "Oh you like to read? Why it's so boring?" Or my English teachers would like me, because when we'd have to turn in a book log, I'd end up turning in five or more instead of one. Then, I started seeing a lot of people who I'd never believed would pick up a book reading the Twilight Series, and I was somewhat confused, because I knew quite a few books that I'd consider far superior to the series, but I think it's like what you were saying. That right now, they're reading Twilight, but they'll be reading something else later, and that made me realize that series like that, are almost like doors.Like if there was a tunnel covered up with leaves, you'd walk by it never knowing it was there, but then if your friends started talking about it, then you'd want to go look for it and when you uncovered it, there would be a tunnel and at first it would be small, but then it'd slowly get larger and larger until it opened up into a secret place, that you'd be so happy to find. Then you'd look back and think that the tunnel entrance was not that great, but where it led you was.

Hehe My parents stopped caring what I read along time ago. After my whole gross out faze they don't worry about me anymore haha. I was corrupted along time ago. Thanks to my close personal group of friends. :D

I just listened to the panel. I'm a big fan of Rick Kleffel's podcast but had never heard of any of you before. And I have to say that, of all the writers on the panel, you came off as the most well-balanced, live-and-let-live. You tended not to make big generalizations about what's art and what's not, and I appreciate that. The dangerous thing about Kleffel is that he inspires me to check out authors' work based solely upon their personality, and now I'll be doing that with your books! :-)

I certainly enjoyed the panel and your comments. Thanks again for the free books that you gave me! (I'm not sure if you remember, but it was in the big room, during the mass signing) ... I always learn so much at that conference ... and your origin story of how you became a writer gave me great hope!Thanks!

Hello. I'm doing a project for my 8th grade English class on an author of your choice and since I've read the first 2 Generation Dead books (and loved them) I chose you. I need biographical info, so here's my dilemma: I can't find anything on you. I need your help! I need to know:date of birth, marriages, children, places of residence, schools attended, and anything else you can give me. I REALLY need your help! Thank you SO much!

my mum doesnt like the gd series even though shes never read them she sed it doesnt seem very nice she wont listen to me so i just buy them myself with my pocket money lol she doesnt like night world either and thats gone missing ... hmm? lol

im always spacing out but thats not when im writing just in maths because im "thinking" ( yh rite)